The door slips shut behind him.
Shouto leans back with a sigh, sliding down the wooden surface warily, too many things on his mind all at once. Kōki-kun, Akemi, Yaoyorozu, Aizawa-sensei, that man...
It's almost too much. He drags a hand down over his scar, and looks up to the ceiling, but Shouto's used to too much, so he simply sat on the floor and waited for the buzz to past.
There's a tracker. They can find Bakugou. They can find Akemi, they can save her. Yaoyorozu's got the tracker and locator. They can find them. This time Shouto can not let go. He can grab on and not let go. He can't let go. Not again. Too much hung on this. Kōki-kun's watery eyes came to mind, Midoriya's desperate scream echoed in the room, Iida's sobs, Ueno's cries and more, everyone and everything. The look on Akemi's face when she'd let go- how could she just... accept it, when such devastation would be left behind?
He sat for an eternity. Face in his hands and knees to his chest. Until the sun was setting and the rays seep through the window and the blinds he finally stood up and stumbled towards the balcony. Like Kōki-kun said, it oversaw the courtyard and had a full view of the flowers. He'd forgotten their names again.
So Akemi really hated them, he never knew. They looked like something Akemi would like instead, but she just like to surprise people, doesn't she?
The thought of the girl alone hurts. And this is a feeling quite foreign to Shouto. Before UA, before Akemi and Midoriya and Iida and class 1A, he've never felt as much as he did for years. And it scares him, in a way.
Letting himself feel is, in a way, exposing himself to the possibility of getting hurt, again. For so long he's withdrawn himself from feeling that he's forgotten how beautiful it can be, to open up and bound with someone, to talk to someone about the things he like without care, to bare himself to someone he could fully trust.
Ever since he was a child, ever since he got this burn.
Ever since mother left.
It took Midoriya screaming across an arena for him to open up. It took him breaking his entire arm for him to realize, that being cold hurts much more than he's like to admit. It took that for him to see how Akemi's silent companion to school was a sign of quiet support, and before he knew it the girl had seeped her way into his life, too deep to let go.
And now that she was wrenched away from them, from him, the void in her absence became unbearable.
He shifted, and is suddenly reminded that sitting on the floor really isn't the best position. So stumbling to his feet, he made his way to the bed, and slumped onto the mattress.
He had always slept in a futon, so the bed was a new experience to him. The soft sheets and blanket was unfamiliar, but surprisingly comfortable for his tired body. So before the sun went down, I'm the golden light of the sinking sun, Todoroki Shouto laid, fast asleep.
Kōki sighed as no one replied to her knock. Todorki-san's room was quiet, and glancing at the quick dinner she whipped up ('he really likes cold soba, apparently,' Akemi used to complain, 'nothing wrong with that, but he just likes it so much I think he's addicted, seriously...'), Kōki could only set the tray down on the table just outside the room, and quickly wrote a note, before slipping it under the door and leaving.
She was on her way down the stairs when her phone rang, startling her out of her trance-like state of thinking about everything and nothing, making her stumble a little before steadying herself to take the call.
"Hello?"
"Kōki."
Kōki didn't know what she was expecting, but Hiroi-san certainly wasn't who. He doesn't call her often, after all, and although his voice sounded worried, it wasn't the kind she's gotten a little tired of hearing in the past few hours. Instead, it was distracted, urgent and frantic, like he was missing something.
"Hiroi-san?"
"Kōki, listen to me." Hiroi-san said, his voice heavy, "I need you to do something for me." He gulped, "I need you to get something from that man's office."
Kōki almost stopped breathing. "Hiroi-san, I can't possibly do that." She hissed, "he- he has security cams in there, I'll get caught and-"
"Kōki-"
"You don't understand, how much he values that place, last time Akemi went in he- what he did to her was-"
"Do it for Akemi then."
Kōki went quiet.
"I need you to get a USB drive." Hiroi-san said, word by word and seriously. "It should be in a small slot behind the third book shelf, left-hand-side, fourth book."
"Why-" Kōki's voice caught, anger bubbling up once again, "why would Akemi want me to do this? Why would you know she want me to do this? Akemi's kidnapped right now, dammit—"
"Because she planned this."
Current Poll Results~ (from both the poll and the reviews)
Akemi's paring:
Todoroki Shouto: 26
Midoriya Izuku: 8
Ueno Hibiki: 7
Bakugou Katsuki: 5
Iida Tenya: 3
Dabi: 1
Iida Tensei: 1
Kaminari Denki: 1
Seiba Hiroi: 0
Others (Please state in review!)
Hibiki's pairing:
Shinsou Hitoshi: 10
Kimura Akemi: 7
Iida Tenya: 4
Midoriya Izuku: 0
Seiba Hiroi: 0
Todoroki Shouto: 0
Others (Please state in review!)
I'm very sorry about the delay! I have been running into multiple problems throughout the last week or two, (school, network, not being able to log into my account) so this update was heavily delayed, which is why this one is a double update. I'm sincerely apologize, and please enjoy.
Onto the comment(s)!
To darkpaladin89: Yeah, gotta get his head all the way down in bed rock, co he won't get back up again because you can't break bedrock. (lol minecraft reference) And Marm will show up soon~
To sanmitamaya: Yeeeeeep, spelling is one of my biggest flaws when it comes to writing, I get most of the grammar right. but I just keep switching between present and past tense, it's a little hard to keep track when I write in parts instead of a whole, I get better in bigger projects though, when I check stuff ten times before posting, but I didn't have the time for Sonder, with how rushed everything is...
I have a discord server where I share art about my fanfics, give instant updates, and generally just chat. This also applies to my original works but you can ignore that as long as you don't choose the specific roles.
